Gen. Raheel Sharif profusely praised the professional competence and dedication of the ISI officers and ranks to preserve national security and integrity.

Army chief Gen. Raheel Sharif on Tuesday visited the headquarters of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), apparently to express solidarity with country’s main spy agency that has been put on the line in recent days in the wake of attack on prominent anchorperson Hamid Mir in Karachi.

He profusely praised the professional competence and dedication of the ISI officers and ranks to preserve national security and integrity.

Mir’s family accused the ISI and its chief of planning the attack on his car as it left airport on Saturday. He received six bullets and has now been shifted to private room of metropolitan’s Sir Agha Khan hospital where doctors retrieved three of the six bullets that hit his belly after successful operation. Doctors said his condition is now stable but have restricted visits to the injured journalist for three days after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif met and talked to him on Monday evening holding out assurance the attackers would not escape justice.

The episode has divided the media and rival TV channels to Mir’s Geo News have carried out, an apparently inspired campaign against it accusing its owners of promoting Indian and American agenda to malign the ISI. The military spokesman Maj-Gen. Asim Bajwa has warned that legal action is being contemplated against the channel for globally maligning and undermining ISI’s image.

Meanwhile, Senators across the party divide on Monday night called upon the country’s top intelligence agency to clear its name in cases of attacks on journalists and the matter of enforced disappearances.